Experienced teams shine

NETBALL

THE ability and experience of the higher-ranked premier-grade netball teams shone through at the YMCA last night with wins to the “Old Girls” teams.

Whangara Old Girls trailed Tapuae after the first quarter but after that took charge to win their Pak’nSave competition game 53-36.

“Tapuae started strongly, scored the first two goals and were leading by two at the end of the first quarter,” netball commentator Sherrill Beale said.

“However, Whangara were more settled in the second quarter, stepped up their pressure and created turnovers to pull ahead. They led by six goals at halftime.

“They pulled further ahead at each quarter.”

The quarter scores were 8-10, 24-18 and 41-29.

“Both teams used tight marking through the court, which meant when they were on attack the players had to work extra-hard to get the ball to their shooters,” Beale said.

“There is a good understanding between Whangara’s shooters, Nardia Whaitiri-White and Sandy Porter. They positioned themselves well to collect balls coming into the goal circle and they also had some slick passes between each other.”

In the other match last night, F45 High School Old Girls beat Gillies Electrical Gisborne Girls’ High School Senior A 53-41. HSOG led all the way — 17-8, 27-22 and 38-27 at the quarter marks.

“The students had some good passages of play and had pulled the nine-goal deficit back to five by halftime,” Beale said.

“Girls’ High defenders Judaea Keelan-Phillips and Joaquina Kaa had a hand in this by hunting balls at every opportunity.

“However, HSOG had a strong second half, pressured the students to make little errors and pulled away.”

On attack, Katie Keogh, Ashleigh Te Patu, Lauren Bennett and Marcia Beale worked well together in the goal third for HSOG, she said.

“At the other end, HSOG defenders Kelly Wood and Alex Sinclair worked together to stop a lot of ball going into the student shooters.”